A "journey" involving running in place in the deep end. Quite possibly I've gone off the deep end.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Pillow talk

It all started with the sciatica about 10 years ago. And my reading that a pillow between the legs when sleeping could alleviate the symptoms. Tried it, it worked great, and I've thus been sleeping with a pillow between my legs ever since.

And there was also the Raynauds and circulation issues -- most notably the way my body temperature drops miserably low in the evenings. I found a bit of happiness in a heated mattress pad and electric blanket, even in the summer.

Then, this past year I started having more and more issues with my lower legs -- specifically calf tightness, plantar fascitis, achilles tendonitis, posterior tibial tendonitis. The prescription for all of these is the same -- nocturnal use of the Strassburg Sock or other night splint variant. I tried it, it helped, and so I've been sleeping in splints each night.

Are you keeping track? That's a pillow between the legs, plus a heating pad, plus night splints.

***

Last summer, I was diagnosed with inflammation of my esophagus resulting in asthma-like symptoms when running. One of the recommendations was to prop my torso up with 2-3 pillows. This one worked as well, so I added it into the mix.

Of course, there's been other things on occasion. The pillow I propped my leg up with when I broke my foot, to reduce swelling and promote healing. The wearing of compression socks to ease sore calves. Yet another pillow I stuffed under my side at my waist to address back pain last fall.

Yes, at one point I had pillows under my upper torso, back, and foot, as well as between my knees -- it got to the point of pointlessness -- if everything's elevated, then nothing's elevated.

***

And then, there's the cat.

Little Mina was adopted from the local rescueabout 11 years ago, and has decided that I'm mom. She's pretty much inseparable from me when I'm home, and this includes in bed at night. She likes to a) curl up on top of the pillow against my head, and b) knead the back of my neck with her claws. For at least 10 minutes at a time. There's no stopping this second action. I've pushed her away again and again; no good. Lock her out of the room, and she cries all night long. So, there's really only one answer.

I sleep with a towel or blanket wrapped around my head, so that she can knead that.

7 comments:

ha, soul sista, I wear the splints on both legs most nights. Hub calls them my wooden legs, which is a very long story about some guy at the gym who actually thought I had a wooden leg because of the way I walk. And I always do the pillow between my legs too, I used to have a body pillow that I called my husband, but hub made me throw it out. (BTW, if you can swing it, the body pillow is the greatest!!). But outside of those two things, you sound like a complete DIVA. I may start calling you Mariah.

Full slew of race reports here (from my first in June 2007 to 2010) and here (2011).

workouts

(you can click on the link to see the details)

Pool running conversion

I convert my pool-running into “mileage” with this formula:

1)10 minutes “easy” in the pool equals one mile

2)workouts translate by time into mileage, with the recoveries not counting for mileage.For example, I would normally cover half a mile in 3:00 during an interval workout, and 1.5 miles in 10:00 during a tempo.So 8x3:00 at interval effort is 4 miles, and 10 minutes at tempo effort is 1.5 miles.